Former ICTY prosecutor named for top job at Khmer Rouge tribunal

Wed, 02 Dec 2009

By : dpa

(Posted by CAAI news Media)

Phnom Penh - Cambodia's war crimes tribunal on Wednesday announced the much-delayed appointment of its new international co-prosecutor following the resignation of Canada's Robert Petit earlier this year. In a press statement, the tribunal said British national Andrew T Cayley would take up the post. A tribunal spokesman said Cayley would likely arrive in Cambodia and begin work "within a few weeks."

The statement noted that Cayley has spent the past two years defending Charles Taylor at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, and has t10 years' experience on the prosecution at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

"[And] from 2005-2007 he served as senior prosecuting counsel at the International Criminal Court and in that capacity was responsible for the Darfur investigation and subsequently for the first Darfur case against Ahmed Harun and Ali Kushayb," it stated.

In the same announcement, the tribunal stated that Nicholas Koumjian from the United States has been appointed reserve co-prosecutor.

The international side of the prosecution at the joint UN-Cambodian tribunal has had well-publicized problems retaining key international staff, with several quitting in the past year.

There have also been significant disagreements with the court's Cambodian co-prosecutor on key issues such as whether or not to pursue more Khmer Rouge war crimes suspects. The Cambodian co-prosecutor recently followed the line espoused by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen that prosecuting further suspects could destabilize the nation.

Tribunal monitor Heather Ryan, from the Soros-funded Open Society Justice Initiative, said news of the appointment was encouraging.

"It's an important development for the court to get its permanent [international] co-prosecutor on board as soon as possible," Ryan said.

"There are a lot of important decisions to be made in the next couple of months about the [next] case, and it's important that the person who has the responsibility to carry out those decisions is the one who makes them."

The Khmer Rouge tribunal, known as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), last week completed hearing the case against Comrade Duch, the former head of the Khmer Rouge torture and execution centre in Phnom Penh known as S-21.

Acting international co-prosecutor William Smith was widely seen as having done a good job, particularly in the trial's final week when Duch's defence imploded and fielded two opposing arguments before the court.

Duch's trial wrapped up on Friday after 77 days of hearings. He was tried for crimes against humanity and war crimes, as well as crimes under Cambodian law, and will be sentenced early next year. At least 15,000 people were tortured and executed at S-21.

Four senior surviving ex-Khmer Rouge are in custody awaiting trial, including former Brother Number Two Nuon Chea.

The Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. Up to 2 million people are thought to have died during that time from execution, starvation and overwork. The movement's leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998.